Trade News

DALLAS — Toyota Motor North America's new CEO, Ted Ogawa, spent the past several years under the direct tutelage of the man he succeeded: longtime CEO Jim Lentz, who retired April 1. Ogawa, who cut his teeth in the U.S. as a purchasing coordinator at the joint Toyota-General Motors NUMMI assembly plant in Fremont, Calif., sees calm, confident leadership as the key to getting Toyota's North American operations through the COVID-19 pandemic, a belief he shared with Lentz.

Ogawa, 60, had never granted an interview to a news organization before, but he spoke for an hour with Publisher Jason Stein and Staff Reporter Larry P. Vellequette on March 9 at his office in Plano, Texas, just weeks before the Japanese automaker suspended production. Here are edited excerpts.

Q: Tell us your feelings about being in the CEO position and your vision for the role.

A: Firstly, I want to continue the legacy that Jim Lentz started, with bringing our teams all together as To…

New data is shedding light on just how much the coronavirus pandemic has kept people from traveling.

In the U.S., the disruption hit a peak in early April, when people reduced their total miles traveled by half across all surface modes of transportation, according to Arity, a mobility and data analytics company.

Since then, the company has seen a gradual uptick in travel. Total miles traveled had returned to 62 percent of previous norms on May 9.

But the broad picture masks considerable differences; the pandemic's impact on travel has varied from state to state.

Some saw a drop in overall miles traveled as precipitous as 70 percent while others declined as little as 23 percent from previous levels.

Gary Hallgren, president of Arity, says what constitutes a recovery looks different from one region to another.

Wyoming's traffic has recovered to near pre-pandemic norms, while Washington, D.C., remains 70 percent below its norms.

…

Volvo Car USA's vehicle subscription program violates several California franchise and consumer protection laws, according to a six-month investigation by the state's Department of Motor Vehicles.

In a letter dated April 28, the department warned Volvo that future violations might lead to "enforcement actions" but stopped short of taking any punitive steps now.

The California DMV probe escalates a two-year battle between Volvo and its California dealers over the subscription service and questions the future of a key Volvo retail program in the Swedish automaker's largest U.S. market.

Volvo views the subscription program as another channel for dealers to move inventory. Just as with traditional new-vehicle leases and sales, dealers receive a margin on subscription volume.

Care by Volvo, launched in 2017, is a two-year subscription service. The program bundles the use of a vehicle, insurance and maintenance costs into …

Tesla Inc. has chosen to locate its second U.S. auto factory in Texas, the blog Electrek reported, citing an unnamed source.

The EV maker will construct the plant in or near Austin, the typically pro-Tesla blog said.

The Associated Press and CNBC later reported that Austin and Tulsa, Okla., are finalists for the facility but that no final decision has been made.

Elon Musk said in March that Tesla was scouting for sites where it will build both the in-development Cybertruck and the Model Y crossover for customers on the East Coast. The CEO last week threatened to move the company’s headquarters and future programs to Texas or Nevada after a California county blocked the carmaker from reopening its factory in the San Francisco Bay area.

Within days, the company defied county health officials and restarted production.

Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck in November, with Musk pitching it as a radically different option from the highly lucrative pick…

Daimler AG is suspending production at a Mercedes-Benz SUV plant – one of the first car factories in the U.S. to reopen -- due to a shortage of parts supplied from Mexico.

The Vance, Ala., operation won’t build vehicles next week, according to an internal notice viewed by Bloomberg. Workers are being given the option to use vacation time or go without pay and file for state and federal unemployment benefits.

The Mercedes plant reopened late last month after idling for five weeks as much of the U.S. manufacturing base shut down to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Now, as U.S. carmakers plan to restart their operations beginning next week, Mexico’s government has sent mixed messages as to how soon it will allow auto companies to reopen.

After sending several conflicting messages over the past three days, Mexico said Friday that plants can reopen before June 1 if they follow various safety protocols. Numerous automakers and suppliers are confident that the…

Canadian supplier Linamar Corp. is cranking its factories back into production as the industry attempts to restart operations amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are very much focused on recovery at this point,” Linda Hasenfratz said on BNN Bloomberg TV Friday. “I feel we’ve really come through the toughest point.”

Some plants are now running in North America and Europe. “Next week, the rest of the North America plants will be coming back online,” Hasenfratz said.

The comments may help soften the blow from U.S. factory production data today which showed an almost 72 percent slump for motor vehicles and parts as car plants shuttered to slow the spread of the virus.

The Guelph, Ontario-based company has established safety protocols based on screening, making sure workers get the protection they need, including masks, establishing physical barriers to keep people apart, cleaning and hygiene and contact tracing, she said. 

China factories…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. says engineers have been able to boost the upcoming Mustang Mach-E electric crossover's fast-charging capabilities on the rear-wheel-drive version by up to 30 percent ahead of its launch this year.

Ford says the electric vehicle's rwd variant with an extended-range battery will gain 61 miles after 10 minutes plugged into a DC fast charger, up from initial estimates of 47 miles over that period. The all-wheel-drive model with an extended-range battery will gain 52 miles after 10 minutes.

Rwd variants with a standard-range battery will gain 46 miles over that period, while awd models with standard-range batteries will get 42 miles.

"We've made it a priority to make it faster to recharge [the] Mustang Mach-E, and we're continuing to work with providers to ensure even more charge points are available through FordPass to make it easier to recharge," Mark Kaufman, Ford global director, electrification, said in a statement.

FordP…

DETROIT — Plant shutdowns due to the coronavirus will result in roughly two-month delays for several of Ford Motor Co.'s key vehicle programs, including the redesigned F-150 pickup and new Bronco SUV, but a top executive said the automaker doesn't envision additional postponements.

"Given our inability to work in our assembly plants during the shelter-in-place restrictions, it will have an impact to program timing, in terms of the launches, but we expect the launch delays to be commensurate with the duration of the shutdown period," Hau Thai-Tang, Ford's chief product development and purchasing officer, said Friday in a Bank of America presentation.

Ford on March 18 said it would shutter its North American facilities as the coronavirus spread across the globe. It plans to resume limited production at most plants Monday.

Ford has already delayed public unveilings of the Bronco, Bronco Sport crossover and F-150 this spring.

The Bronco Sport, F-150 a…

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. on Friday said it would reduce vehicle production in Japan by 122,000 units in June, as a lack of demand for new cars due to the coronavirus prompts the automaker to keep its plants running on limited operations.

The drop in Toyota's production underscores the challenging conditions for carmakers around the world due to the fallout from the virus. Besides weak demand, problems with procurement and social distancing measures at plants are also expected to hit output.

The automaker said it would halt production at all of its 15 plants for four days next month, while stopping output for up to 7 days on 10 of its production lines, which make models including the Prius gasoline hybrid, Corolla sedan, and 4Runner midsize SUV.

In addition, it plans to operate only single shifts on five production lines next month, an arrangement which would continue on two lines through July, and through August on another, it said in a statement.

Join Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein for a daily podcast series about the coronavirus crisis. He’ll speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about how the virus is impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

Nissan's Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta discusses the automaker's transformation strategy; Jose Valls' departure; relationships with dealers and what the company is learning from the coronavirus crisis. 

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MILAN -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is in talks to obtain a state-backed credit line of about 6.3 billion euros ($6.8 billion) from Italy to buttress the automaker's finances against the steep downturn caused by the coronavirus, Bloomberg and Reuters reported.

The automaker is seeking to shore up liquidity after burning through $5.5 billion in the first quarter while its plants were shuttered and new-car demand stalled.

FCA has gradually restarted its operations in Italy since the end of last month after they were closed due to government coronavirus lockdowns. The automaker on Tuesday released plans detailing how it will resume North American production next week.

FCA, which has its legal headquarters in the Netherlands, runs several plants in Italy and may qualify for the government program, which offers more than 400 billion euros worth of liquidity and bank loans to companies hit by the pandemic.

Companies using the program for state guara…

MILAN -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' decision to scrap its dividend marks another setback for plans by the Agnelli family's Exor arm to raise cash after a $9 billion sale of its reinsurer unit PartnerRe collapsed this week.

FCA and PSA Group, which have agreed a tie-up to create the world's fourth largest automaker, said on Wednesday they were both withdrawing their annual dividend. That will allow them each to preserve 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in cash during the coronavirus crisis.

Exor, led by Agnelli scion John Elkann and FCA's controlling shareholder with a 28.9 percent stake, will miss out on around 320 million euros in cash at a time when two deals to reshape its portfolio of businesses have either been scrapped or delayed.

The coronavirus crisis had already forced vehicle and equipment maker CNH Industrial, also controlled by Exor, to delay to late 2021 "or beyond" a plan to split in two and list its truck, bus and engine business, which wa…